Antec Quattro 850 and 8800GTX issue (resolved!) - Overclock.net

Run N. Gun · 10-22-07

About two weeks I finished building my new system (see the specs in the sig below) and I completely modded the case around the design of the Quattro 850 power supply.

I read the great reviews on this PSU all over the net, Jonnyguru.com, Anandtech.com, etc. BUT every single time I booted up (and only at boot up), I received the popup stating the NVidia System Sentinel had detected insufficient power and was down clocking the card.

I had reseated the card, swapped power cables, swapped ports on the modular PSU, etc. No luck. Nada. So, I started Googling the problem until I found this thread: http://forums.slizone.com/index.php?showtopic=8853 and BINGO - this makes sense since I had followed the same exact steps to solve the problem too. This was 2:30am Saturday morning. I had plans to attend the DesertBash 200-seat LAN party at Intel later that day, and was limping on two lame 12v rails.

I stopped by a [nameless] store and picked up a Corsair HX620 and a PSU tester. When I arrived at the Lan party, I pulled the Antec 12v rails off of my video card and plugged in the Corsair, then plugged the PSU tester into the 24pin cable on the Corsair.

LAN Party

Hooking up the 2nd PSU to power the GPU:

Another pic of this configuration working:

Now, the whole system is running on the Antec 850 except for the 8800GTX Superclocked card. I booted up and was NOT greeted by the Sentinel Message. I started up Team Fortress 2, HL2, Day of Defeat, CS:S, etc, and had no problems at all!!!

I confirmed that the combined 36A of the 12v rail from the Antec was indeed insufficient for my single eVGA 8800GTX.

I opened a trouble ticket on Saturday with Antec Customer Support and have not heard back from them, yet. I fully expect to hear from them and will post their reply.

In the meantime, I needed additional power for my GPU so I returned the Corsair 620 and bought a Thermaltake Power Express 250W PCI PSU that fits in a 5 1/4 bay to get me through, until ANTEC replaces my PSU.

Thermaltake Power Express 250W PCI

I had a hard time installing it based on my existing cable management in the case, so I improvised as best I could. It really messed up my tidy cable management work Grrr....

I booted up and everything works PERFECTLY!

I hope that this info helps someone else out there that is struggling with the same issue! I'll update this thread when Antec responds to my trouble ticket. Good luck!

Penicilyn · 10-22-07

Looks like one hell of a party. I havn't been to a LAN in a year

**DuckieHo** · 10-22-07

I would have kept the Corsair 620HX since it is better anyways. Just paint it! (Since you do have skills)

The issue probably isn't insufficent power on the 12v rails. It probably has to do with the POWER_GOOD signal being sent too early to the motherboard. (IMO)

Run N. Gun · 10-23-07

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckieHo

I would have kept the Corsair 620HX since it is better anyways. Just paint it! (Since you do have skills)

The issue probably isn't insufficent power on the 12v rails. It probably has to do with the POWER_GOOD signal being sent too early to the motherboard. (IMO)

So DuckieHo, I thought the same thing for 2 weeks, but why, why, why do all the STEAM games crap out as soon as the Steam Engine starts up?? That question kept bugging me. I know that Steam really pushes the GPU right away at start up...so the GPU is being downclocked, despite GPU-Z telling me otherwise. I pushed my GPU fan to 100% by configuring RivaTuner to do it and that didn't solve the problem either. The only action that solved the problem was giving the card more power. Admittedly, I don't know if it is the total amperage between the two rails or if the combining of two rails was the problem, but all the guys who were running the same card at the LAN party were running single rail 50-80A PSUs. I'm going to alert some other more electrically inclined folks to see if they can figure it out for us.

Run N. Gun · 10-23-07

DuckieHo - On second thought, you may have something there since Antec admits to "recently identified communications problem between some units of the power supply and the firmware on NVIDIA's card that causes an error message to be generated." You could be right and my adding of more power just bypasses the error condition. Either way, it does not address and solve the root cause. Good point you made there!

Run N. Gun · 10-23-07

Update: Antec Customer Support requested my shipping address for RMA. I responded with a request for a confirmation that the replacement PSU unit WILL fix this problem with the 8800GTX. I'll update, as soon as I hear back.

**DuckieHo** · 10-23-07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Run N. Gun

Update: Antec Customer Support requested my shipping address for RMA. I responded with a request for a confirmation that the replacement PSU unit WILL fix this problem with the 8800GTX. I'll update, as soon as I hear back.

Good to hear.... would you happen to have an access to an oscilloscope?

The_Rocker · 10-23-07

I think you have your PSU upside down mate, maybe its overheating and down volting.

There is that little vent thing on the other side.

**DuckieHo** · 10-23-07

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Rocker

I think you have your PSU upside down mate, maybe its overheating and down volting.

There is that little vent thing on the other side.

What do you mean? What vent is being blocked? Besides, it is a confirmed issue by Antec.

Pheatton · 10-23-07

Ever heard of this problem with ATI cards. I really dont want to replace the PSU now....

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Antec Quattro 850 and 8800GTX issue (resolved!)

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